What’s New

Eight extremely generous New Mexicans who believe strongly in Think New Mexico’s work put together a pool of challenge grants totaling $95,000 that we needed to match by October 22.

By the time the two-week fundraising campaign wrapped up, not only did your contributions meet the challenge, they totaled $111,983! Including both the challenge grants and your matching contributions, during the past two weeks you helped us raise $206,983, which is more than one-third of Think New Mexico’s annual budget.

Since Think New Mexico was founded in 1999, we have always worked hard to keep our fundraising expenses to an absolute minimum. That’s why we have never employed a professional fundraiser. This strategy has succeeded thanks to all of you who give so generously every year and make it possible for Think New Mexico’s small staff to focus on our policy research and advocacy work.

Your support is a strong vote of confidence in Think New Mexico’s efforts to maximize dollars to New Mexico’s classrooms, prevent the reimposition of the food tax, protect lottery scholarships, make health care prices more transparent and affordable, and reform how the state funds essential public infrastructure. Thank you for your support!

Earlier this year, New Mexico took a first step toward making health care prices more transparent with the launch of a website, nmhealthcarecompare.com, where anyone can find the average prices paid by Medicaid for nine common, non-emergency procedures at each of the state’s 44 hospitals. The website, which was created as a result of legislation that Think New Mexico drafted and advocated for, also includes quality metrics for the hospitals, such as 30-day readmission rates and patient ratings.

Now it is time to take the next step: adding the average prices paid by New Mexicans who are covered by individual or employer-provided insurance policies. A growing number of other states, including our neighbors in Colorado and Utah, are pulling back the veil on health care prices by creating All-Payer Claims Databases (APCDs), which collect information on the prices paid for health care by all payers and allow those states to provide information about the average costs of care for people with different types of insurance.

During the 2019 legislative session, Think New Mexico will be advocating for New Mexico to create an APCD to make health care prices more transparent and empower New Mexicans to find the most affordable, highest quality health care. Read our guest editorial and learn more about this initiative!

While the recent Yazzie/Martinez v. State of New Mexico decision has understandably received intense interest for its landmark ruling that New Mexico’s public schools are not adequately funded, there has been less attention on another, equally important aspect of the ruling: the finding that more money will only make a difference for students if it is spent in the classroom.

Read Think New Mexico’s recent opinion editorial about how and why we must make sure that every additional dollar appropriated in response to the Yazzie decision is spent in the classroom!

Read all about the latest progress on our efforts to maximize dollars to the classroom, fight the food tax, increase funding for lottery scholarships and much more in Think New Mexico’s latest annual report! Click here to download the annual report.

We are delighted to be joined this summer by Mitchel Latimer, a Roswell native majoring in Political Science and Economics at the University of Denver; EmmaLia Mariner, who grew up in Albuquerque and is studying Politics and Law and Society at Oberlin College; Elena Purcell, an Albuquerque native and a senior at Wellesley majoring in Economics and Spanish; and Neel Roy, who grew up in Albuquerque and is now a rising senior at Texas Tech University! Mitchel and EmmaLia are working with us June-July, and Elena and Neel will be here July-August.

In 2005, Think New Mexico won passage of legislation creating a Strategic Water Reserve, a pool of publicly-held water rights dedicated to keeping New Mexico’s rivers flowing to avoid lawsuits over endangered species and interstate compacts. With the current drought and Texas’ lawsuit against New Mexico over the lower Rio Grande, we need this water management tool now more than ever – yet its effectiveness has been hampered by a lack of funding.

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"To anyone that pays a utility bill, who is a taxpayer, (they have) a right to expect these PRC Commissioners have the knowledge and training to do their jobs correctly," says Think New Mexico's Fred Nathan. "It's part of their job. I think most adults everywhere in the world understand that if they don't fulfill the requirements for their job they shouldn't be paid. And I don't see why the PRC should be any different." ... See MoreSee Less

Yes, I saw your year long investigation. Now, what penalty will both PRC Commissioners receive and why is there no state agency to monitor and regulate these individuals?
Come on, Mr. Balderas, do something about it!

We encourage all New Mexicans who are eligible to vote to make it to the polls today, if you haven't already voted early! Our democracy works best when everyone's voices are represented...#vote #votenm #newmexico #newmexicotrue #newmexicolove #newmexicolife #nmleg #nmpol ... See MoreSee Less